


He Who Monologues in the Dark

by WotanAnubis



Series: Fate of the Fallen Petals [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crimson Flower, Gen, Monologue, Post-Game, Those Who Slither in the Dark, venting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 11:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: In which Hubert vents his frustrations with Thales and Those Who Slither in the Dark.





	He Who Monologues in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Am I using Hubert as a mouthpiece for my own opinions? Yeah, probably, a bit.

"It didn't have to end like this, you know."

Hubert leaned back in the chair. It was unlike any chair he had ever sat in. It had only a single leg, which splayed out into five smaller, horizontal legs at the bottom. There were little wheels on them. The room, too, was different than any he'd ever seen. Made more of metal rather than stone or wood.

"It must have seemed inevitable to you," Hubert continued. "Indeed, in many ways it was inevitable. But it didn't have to be. I wonder, 'Lord Arundel', if you had ever considered a different path?"

He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Unnatural light offered its steady and somewhat unsettling glow.

"Yes," Hubert said, "Our ancestors either sided with Seiros or surrendered to her. However, that was a thousand years ago. All those people are long dead, and we are all that remain. And you must have known that many of us were unhappy with the status quo. Surely your spies would have told you that much? But you... all your kind... were too blinded by your resentments. Or perhaps your lust for power?"

Hubert got out of the chair and walked over to a wall. It was covered in... machinery. Dull mirrors that barely reflected anything. Tiny cubes covered in symbols. He was aware, just barely, that operating the cubes in a certain way and in a certain order would cause the mirrors to do... something. That from here, he could affect the whole of the Agarthan's underground city in some way. If only he knew the trick of it. And he knew he never would. Before he could begin understanding these devices, he would need to understand a great many other incomprehensible things first.

"Look at these," he said, waving a gloved hand at the wall of dull mirrors. "These aren't magic. I would've been able to tell if they'd been magic. And yet, I have seen you perform miracles with them. Magic without magic. Imagine what might have happened if only you'd shared these with the rest of us. The power of the Crests would be broken. The Church's claims of divinity might have become irrelevant.

"Of course, it wouldn't have been easy," Hubert admitted. "No doubt the Church would fight you tooth and nail. But you'd been down here plotting your revenge for centuries. Surely you knew patience? You couldn't have shared all of this all at once, but with your capacity for infiltration and disguise, you might have done something. A blacksmith stumbling across a new way of forging metal, perhaps? A healer discovering a potent new combination of herbs? An artificer inventing some device for creating books more quickly than writing everything down by hand?"

He turned away from the wall and looked down with anger in his eyes.

"But no, you didn't do that. Didn't even try. All you could see was your own kind on one side and Seiros on the other and all the rest of us, your fellow human beings, even Nemesis your greatest creation, were just pawns in your game. But then, we weren't human, were we? I think that's what offends me the most. We were not exactly like you, we were not as advanced as you, so we must be beasts. Blind and ignorant and unworthy. You could perform all the experiments you wanted on us, on _Lady Edelgard_, because we don't really matter, do we? It doesn't matter if we die in droves, because we're only beasts, aren't we?"

Hubert stalked over to what had been Thales' desk and leaned against it. He smiled, though there was no humour in it.

"Still, in the end, I suppose I should be grateful for that hubris. Beasts can't be clever, can they? Can't plot, can't scheme, couldn't possibly outwit you. You really should have become more cautious after Lady Edelgard snatched Arianrhod away from you and killed Cornelia in the process. But no, you merely launched those javelins of yours in a fit of pique and trusted us to fall back into line, all cowed and meek. All those years you spent pretending to be like us, and you still didn't understand us.

"You know, Thales, right here and now, just between the two of us, I think I can admit that I did almost respect one of you. Not much. Not at all, really. But if forced to choose, I suppose I would say that I despised Solon the least. He was party to many calculated and pointless atrocities, but I feel like there was more to him than wanton cruelty. When he played the role of Tomas, many... unusual and heretical tomes kept creeping into the Church's library. I must assume this was all part of some ploy to incite people against the Church, but I like to believe the man had one little shred of integrity. That he really did want to tell us truth of the world, even if it was in such a small way. Perhaps I'm being overly generous to the man, but then, as victor, I can afford to be generous.

"But to you, Thales, I can extend no such generosity. Even so, there is one thing I would like to know of you. One question I want to ask you that I genuinely wish to know the answer to. All those years you spent pretending to be Arundel, was there one single human that you respected in the slightest? That you saw as more than a valuable servant? It doesn't have to be much. Perhaps there was a messenger whose speed you appreciated. Or some bureaucrat whose efficiency you admired. Perhaps some soldier whose bloodlust you found useful? Was there one single person that made you believe, however briefly, that we are more than ignorant beasts?"

Hubert looked down on Thales' body, which had been slowly cooling for the last thirty minutes or so. It was a pity he would never get his answer, but Hubert was not the kind of man to let curiosity get in the way of pragmatism.

"Ah, well, so be it."

Hubert pushed himself away from the desk, stepped over the body of the former leader of the Argathans, and made his way to the door. He paused there for a moment, to glance back over his shoulder with a smile.

"Good talk."


End file.
